Latest news on Greenpeace's campaign to stop Russia becoming the world's nuclear waste dump.

21.06.02 - Russian regulators condemn own Ministry over nuclear dump plans

Moscow - Controversial plans to turn Russia into the world's nuclear dump have been
rejected by the country's own nuclear regulator.

Greenpeace has obtained an extremely frank letter sent to Alexander Rumyantsev,
head of the Russian Atomic Ministry, Minatom, in which the multi-billion dollar
plans are condemned by the head of Gosatomnadzor on both safety and economic
grounds.

Commenting on a Minatom submission to President Putin detailing Russia's readiness
to "import, store and reprocess foreign spent fuel" Gosatomnadzor’s Yuriy Vishnevskiy
warns "a wrong conclusion has been made on the existence in the Russian Federation of
the necessary administrative and technical possibilities as well as sufficient regulatory
basis for the acceptance of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from foreign reactors; the profit
from the acceptance has been calculated incorrectly and it contains a number of incorrect
claims."

"Surely now these dangerous Minatom plans to turn Russia into the world's nuclear dump
will be abandoned, only a fool would ignore the regulators warning" said Tobias Muenchmeyer
of Greenpeace International.

Cash-strapped Minatom wants to import 20,000 tones of spent nuclear fuel in a deal it
believes will make US$ 21 billion. It claims to have had discussions with a number of potential
client countries including Germany, UK, Spain, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

Greenpeace has sent a copy of the regulators letter and supporting documents to the
environment minister of each potential client country, requesting an assurance that they will
not dump their radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel in Russia.

"While it is possible that the Russian government will ignore the advice of its nuclear regulator
we urge the so-called client countries to heed the warning and send Minatom's emissaries
packing," said Muenchmeyer.

For more information please contact:

- Tobias Muenchmeyer, Greenpeace International, phone: +49 170 86 66 052
- Sara Holden, Greenpeace International press officer: +31 615 007 406
- Vladimir Chuproff, Greenpeace Russia: + 7 095 257 4122

Notes:

Download an English translation of the letter here (pdf).

The letter was sent 11 days after Greenpeace launched a major photography
exhibition in Moscow's House of Photography detailing the human cost of nuclear
waste dumping over five decades at Mayak, the largest nuclear complex in the world,
and a front runner to host more nuclear waste in the Minatom proposal.

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